


to grow up sad and alone

by dreamzn



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, college student jaemin, convenience store worker jeno, first work so comments would be very much appreciated, i did this out of boredome, jeno has a crush on jaemin, kinda want a part 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:15:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25483027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamzn/pseuds/dreamzn
Summary: jaemin worries about finding true love and growing up alone meanwhile jeno works at a convenience store who is crushing on jaemin
Relationships: Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Comments: 1
Kudos: 42





	to grow up sad and alone

**Author's Note:**

> hello! this is my first fic here on ao3 and believe me when i say this all just happened out of boredome. hopefully you guys enjoy!

The thought of growing up old and alone scared the hell out of Jaemin as he observed the couple right before him. Donghyuck, his best friend, decided that it would be great if his boyfriend and best friend finally met, as he considers Jaemin and his boyfriend his favorite people (besides his family, of course). The two had the same amount of vacant hours before their next lecture, and since Mark didn’t have any classes today at his university, Donghyuck arranged the three of them to meet.

Jaemin is genuinely happy for his best friend at finding love. He had always been there for the guy since they were little kids. Growing up, Donghyuck would tell him about all the guys and girls he had crushes on, dated, and broke up with. But none of them compared to the emotion Jaemin felt when Donghyuck talked about Mark to him when he had the chance. And feeling that once again as he sees Mark and Donghyuck giving each other the heart eyes scared Jaemin, making him question himself if he was ever gonna find love like that.

It’s not that Jaemin hasn’t liked or dated anyone. He actually had a number of people go out with him. But those relationships didn’t last any longer than two weeks. And Jaemin was too kind to lead someone on, so he’d just dump them instead, preventing any futher damage. He just accepts whatever kind of hate he’d get for dumping them or being with them because if he didn’t do it soon, the hate would receive would just be a lot worse. Whatever Jaemin is seeing right now in front of him is what he wants to feel with someone, and it scares him if he would ever get that kind of love and affection.

He spends the rest of the day worrying, thinking maybe he could call one of the people he dated before. What if he didn’t try enough in the dating scene and had already let go the person who was destined to be with him forever? The thought was eating him up. Never did he see himself stressing out about something like this at 20 years old. Maybe because he stressed about his future and college way too much that he forget to stress about his love life, building it up inside him now he’s so close to losing his mind.

Lee Jeno always thought how cute Jaemin was whenever he dropped by the convenience store. Jeno had worked there part time at nigh to help with the college fees, and Jaemin was a regular customer, buying bottles of coffee and instant ramen to keep him up during the long hours of the night, studying his ass off. They’d have a conversation here and there, but Jaemin wasn’t really the type to hold a conversation that long, so he’d just nod and respond very little whenever Jeno starts asking him questions. Jeno would just shrug it off since he does acknowledge the fact that Jaemin was always tired due to his boring lectures that went on for hours.

Today was different for Lee Jeno’s encounter with Jaemin though, as the latter actually started the conversation with him. It surprised Jeno that his crush actually remembered his name. It made him slightly blush but decided to divert his attention to the coffee bottles Jaemin bought so the boy in front of him won’t see the subtle pink shade appearing on his cheeks.

“Jeno. You ever been in a relationship before?” Jaemin asks him, a little bit of hope in him that Jeno had dated before. Maybe he could help him with his worries.

“Yeah. Why did you ask?” the sudden question takes Jeno aback since this was just all too sudden. Naturally, this kind of conversation are usually talked about in between friends. That thought Jeno thinking if he and Jaemin were friends. If they were, Jeno would most certainly be the happiest boy on earth for being friends with Na Jaemin.

Jaemin pauses for a while as he thought  _ Why did I ask him that? He probably thinks I’m weird.  _ A beat passes and Jaemin just says its nothing, leaving a confused Jeno. He pays for his coffee and leaves the convenience store, the thought of growing up sad and alone still haunting him.

Days have passed and the idea has subsided Jaemin’s mind a little, but not completely. The boy could be walking in campus and would spot a happy couple, making Jaemin’s brain flood him with the same thoughts he had before, the worry started to come in again. This time, Jaemin thinks he should do something about it and actually meet people. He consulted Donghyuck about this, told him all about his worries which made Donghyuck reassure him that he has nothing to be worried about. Jaemin is a handsome young man with a number of admirers here and there. So the thought of growing up sad and alone was close to impossible as many of Jaemin’s suitors would be willing to spend their lifetime with them. But that isn’t Jaemin’s concern. He wants to know what it is to love. To have this overwhelming feeling inside of his chest that gives him pain but at the same time enjoys it, and to feel butterflies in his stomach, as the movies would always say about two people falling in love.

Jaemin steps into the convenience store once again to buy coffee. His professor just had to give them a 5 page essay assignment about this documentary they had to watch in class. But since Jaemin decided it was best to sleep in class than to watch the documentary, he was now forced to watch it at home and stay up all night trying to figure out on how he was going to write the essay and pass it the morning after. He grabs three bottles just in case he has to pull an all nighter, something he had been doing recently. The all nighters he pulled were evident in his face as dark circles were seen under his eyes and a face just screamed distress from the number of homework their professors decided to give them.

He steps to the counter and sees Jeno, handing him the coffee. Jeno notices the tired figure in front of him and starts a conversation. Maybe talking about it would help the boy feel better.

“Professors being too hard on you?”

“Glad you noticed because none of my professors did.” Jeno chuckles at his statement.

“Well, that’s college, unfortunately. You know, I’ve seen you buying way too much coffee lately. Hopefully your professors are giving you the grade you deserve for sacrificing sleep to work on their tasks.”

“Oh, they better. The amount of hard work I put on those papers better be worth it or else I’m gonna be filing a complaint.”

They were conversing and Jeno felt enthusiastic as his crush was actually talking to him and not just responding with hums or “yes” or “no”. Jaemin was surprised at himself as well, but he was not gonna lie at how this little conversation he had with Jeno made him feel a tiny bit better.

“Here you go. Hopefully you can still get some rest tonight.” Jeno hands over the plastic bag filled with Jaemin’s coffee, crescents present in his eyes as he smiles. Jaemin notices it and thinks about how it’s cute when Jeno’s eyes do that.

Jaemin grabs the coffee and just stands there. He thinks about the worries he had been getting the past few days and decided that it’s finally time to get back into the dating scene. So he looks at Jeno once again and starts to speak.

“I doubt I’d get sleep tonight but hopefully I could enjoy and de-stress this weekend.”

“Well, I hope you do.”

“Yeah. Are you free this Saturday?”

“I have a morning shift. Why’d you ask?”

“Wanna go watch a movie with me? Help me de-stress?”

Jeno just blinks as he tries to process everything. His crush, Na Jaemin, was asking him out on a date.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> ngl i also wanna see what happens next


End file.
